Bob Kronbauer Is Awesome

04/27/2012

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Last week, Bob Kronbauer, awesome editor-in-chief of Vancouver Is Awesome, dropped by the Wednesday/Thursday Crew to chat about their blog; answer questions about his own über-positive, über-popular site; and give them tips for how to improve the Wednesday/Thursday Crew blog.

What resulted was an internet show-and-tell, the kids showing Bob their favourite online past-times, and Bob sharing his own.

As a thank you, the kids wrote about Bob’s visit on their blog. Here's an excerpt:
[Bob] said that he chose to become a blogger because he likes Vancouver. He meets famous people and he interviews them. He checked out our own Wednesday/Thursday Crew Blog and had read it. That was pretty cool. We showed him Epic Rap Battles of History. We watched the videos and talked about how cool it was. We thought that the best one was Einstein vs. Stephen Hawking. Bob is such a nice guy because he donated us a camera, and we are so excited to use it and take pictures around our school. . . Thanks Bob! Vancouver is awesome and so are you!

Bob also wrote about his visit on his own site. Then the kids started posting some of the photos they took with the camera Bob donated, including this amazing stop-motion video! Then Bob wrote about that. So they’re pretty much blogging pen pals now. Which is truly awesome. Thanks so much for being a part of the Writers’ Room experience, Bob!
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Food Writing (and Eating) with Alexandra Gill

04/23/2012

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The Writers’ Room has been lucky that our friend Alexandra Gill, the food critic at the Globe and Mail who generously donated her time to our Art of Food Writing fundraiser in October, has now visited the Writers’ Room twice. 

She easily wound her way into the primary kids’ hearts through food, letting them sample a food that represented each taste—they even liked the sour lemons!

After talking about the different tastes, each child received an apple, and, before discussing the flavour, they described the look, feel and smell—and the sound of an apple? On the count of three, everyone took a bite at once. The sound of an apple is a resounding crunch followed by a room-full of mmms. Finally, the kids wrote about the apple-eating experience. Here's just one of the great works:

I Ate an Apple!
It looked like a heart.
It felt smooth.
It smelled like a rainbow.
It sounded like a nice cracking sound.
It tasted like sushi.
It reminded me of my dog, my house, candy, worms.
—Ana, grade 4

After spring break, Alexandra returned, this time to chat with the grade 6 and 7 students about food. Whereas the primary workshop was packed with kids and energy, the grade 6/7 workshop was a chance for the eight students who attended to spend some quality time with Alexandra, tasting, food writing, and sharing their thoughts with her on restaurants that the kids and the critic had all been to. That workshop resulted in some great writing, too, like this review by Taran, grade 6:

My favourite restaurant is Top’s on Kingsway. I had the sweet and sour chicken wings. It was very awesome! It wasn’t awesome after I ate the wings! I got more on me than in me. For dessert I had banana cream pie. It was very fluffy.

Alexandra promised to return again for more fun with food, and we can’t wait! Thanks so much for being an ongoing part of our writing (and eating) lives, Alexandra!
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Deborah Willis, Time Traveller

03/23/2012

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Over spring break, the KidSafe kids and Writers’ Room tutors had the pleasure of working with Deborah Willis, Governor-General’s Award–nominated author and the Writer in Residence at the Joy Kogawa House.

She ran a whimsical workshop called Postcards from the Future, where the kids imagined that they had travelled to the future and then wrote a postcard back home to 2012 about what they saw in the future. They also drew the world of the future on the front of the postcards.

These fantastic, futuristic works were displayed at the KidSafe Pancake Breakfast, where three brave writers stood up and shared their visions of the future with a group of their peers, friends, family, KidSafe staff and supporters, and TV crews. Here’s just one of the creative notes from the future:
To see more postcards, check out our Spring Break Postcards from the Future Facebook album.

Thanks so much for spending time with us over spring break, Deborah. We hope to see you again in the future (get it? future?).
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The Art of Food Writing

11/30/2011

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Taryn Boyd, Alexandra Gill, Andrew Morrison, Anna Olson
Taryn Boyd, Alexandra Gill, Andrew Morrison, Anna Olson
Cecil Green Park House, University of British Columbia
With Anna Olson, Andrew Morrison and Alexandra Gill
Facilitated by Taryn Boyd
A fundraiser for the KidSafe Writers’ Room
November 28, 2011

Nestled in the quiet northwest corner of UBC’s campus grounds, the stoic Cecil Green Park House was the setting for Speaking of Taste Buds: The Art of Food Writing, an intimate exchange between fresh and current literary successes, foodies, burgeoning writers and those interested in contributing to the KidSafe Writers’ Room, a local educational cause. Not only was this evening a chance to hear the guest speakers’ personal stories, it was also an opportunity to hear that there is still strong value placed on the written form, despite the span of tweets, Facebook short stories, and blogs and blogs of misinformation on the internet today. 

Showcased as “top of the know” in what good food really is were Food Network host Anna Olson, who recently released her seventh book, Back to Baking (Whitecap Books); Scout Magazine editor, Andrew Morrison; and restaurant critic for the Globe and Mail Alexandra Gill.

Interviewed by Taryn Boyd, the former managing editor of Whitecap Books, the three writers described their passions for food and their connections to writing. They told stories of their foundations in family and friends, different communities, and experiences that shaped their choices to break out of the mould (Anna Olson, for example, was a banker before she gave in to her true passion: baking). Ms Boyd opened with a story, about food, written by a student in the KidSafe Writers’ Room program.

The Writers’ Room is a literacy-enriching program housed within Queen Alexandra Elementary School. It is tended to by many, many committed, compassionate and talented volunteer tutors. These fantastic role models provide much more enrichment than just literacy tutoring to many resilient, deserving children and youth.

And, speaking of food! Vegetarian and omnivorous bites provided by Wescadia Catering floated around the common and sitting rooms at Cecil Green Park House, and the back-room bar offered traditional libations. The most interesting bite—not polled, purely my personal opinion—was the duck confit with cilantro and jelly perched in an orange mini waffle cone. Not only was the duck resting in an orange-coloured waffle cone, the cone was flavoured orange as well. Huh. That was something to write about!

By S.R.M., Writers’ Room volunteer
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